Canadian Film Pioneer TERRENCE MACARTNEY-FILGATE;

MACARTNEY-FILGATE, TERENCE (England, 1924- )

Director, cinematographer and producer who was perhaps the most important single influence on the development of direct cinema in the Candid Eye* series; he was responsible for seven of the thirteen films in the series. His characteristic observational style can be seen in The Days Before Christmas*, Blood and Fire*, Police and The Back-Breaking Lear. His work after he left the NFB in 1960 in order to freelance is less innovative (though he influenced the development of direct cinema in the USA), but includes several notable television documentaries. He returned to prominence in the mid-seventies with several major documentaries and dramatized documentaries, especially Lucy Maude Montgomery: The Road to Green Gables, Grenfell of Labrador, Dieppe 1942 and Fields of Endless Day (on Canada's Black population). He joined the NFB as a scriptwriter in 1956 and directed his first film the same year. He is also a notable cinematographer and, in addition to work on his own films, photographed many other films, including Country Threshing and In Memory of Summer (in the Candid Eye series), Primary (USA 60), Pinter People (69) and The Hottest Show on Earth (77). He has also produced a number of films, especially in recent years.